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<h1>Just in case you didn't get enough the first time</h1>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div class="outline"><!-- outline menu --><center><span class="summary">Outline</span></center><ol><li><a href="#part1">More negative verbs</a></li><li><a href="#part2">Doing something without doing something else</a></li><li><a href="#part3">A casual masculine type of negative that ends in 「ん」</a></li><li><a href="#part4">A classical negative verb that ends in 「ぬ」</a></li></ol></div></td></tr></table>


<h2 id="part1">More negative verbs</h2>We already learned the most common type of negative verbs; the ones that end in 「ない」.  However, there are couple moredifferent types of negatives verbs.  The ones you will find most useful are the first two, which expresses an action that was done without having doneanother action.  The others are fairly obscure or useful only for very casual expressions. However, you <i>will</i> run into them if you learn Japanese fora fair amount of time.
<h2 id="part2">Doing something without doing something else</h2>Way back when, we learned how to express a <a href="compound.html#part3">sequence of actions</a> and this worked fine for both positive and negative verbs.For instance, the sentence "I didn't eat, and then I went to sleep" would become 「<span title="たべる - to eat" class="popup">食べなくて</span><span title="ねる - to sleep" class="popup">寝た</span>。」  However, this sentence sounds a bit strange because eatingdoesn't have much to do with sleeping.  What we probably <i>really</i> want to say is that we went to sleep <i>without</i> eating.  To express this, we need to usea more generalized form of the negative request we covered at the very end of the <a href="favor.html#part5">giving and receiving lesson</a>.In other words, instead of substituting the last 「い」 with 「くて」, we need only append 「で」 instead.
<div class="sumbox"><span class="summary">Doing something without doing something else</span><ul class="plain"><li>To indicate an action that was done <i>without</i> doing another action, add 「で」 to the negative of the action that was <u>not</u> done.</li><li>例）　<span title="たべる - to eat" class="popup">食べ<em><strike>る</strike></em></span> → <span title="たべる - to eat" class="popup">食べ<em>ない</em></span> → <span title="たべる - to eat" class="popup">食べない</span><em>で</em></li></ul></div>

<h3>Examples</h3>
<p>
（１）　<span title="なにも - nothing" class="popup">何も</span><span title="たべる - to eat" class="popup">食べない</span><em>で</em><span title="ねる - to sleep" class="popup">寝ました</span>。<br />- Went to sleep without eating anything.</p>

<p>
（２）　<span title="は - tooth" class="popup">歯</span>を<span title="みがく - to brush" class="popup">磨かない</span><em>で</em>、<span title="がっこう - school" class="popup">学校</span>に<span title="いく - to go" class="popup">行っちゃいました</span>。<br />- Went to school without brushing teeth (by accident).</p>

<p>
（３）　<span title="しゅくだい - homework" class="popup">宿題</span>を<span title="する - to do" class="popup">しない</span><em>で</em>、<span title="じゅぎょう - class" class="popup">授業</span>に<span title="いく - to go" class="popup">行く</span>のは、<span title="やめる - to stop; to quit" class="popup">やめた</span><span title="ほう - direction, side" class="popup">方</span>が<span title="いい - good" class="popup">いい</span>よ。<br />- It's better to stop going to class without doing homework.</p>

<p>
（４）　<span title="せんせい - teacher" class="popup">先生</span>と<span title="そうだん - consultation" class="popup">相談</span><span title="する - to do" class="popup">しない</span><em>で</em>、<span title="この - this" class="popup">この</span><span title="じゅぎょう - class" class="popup">授業</span>を<span title="とる - to take" class="popup">取る</span><span title="こと - event; matter" class="popup">こと</span>は<span title="できる - to be able to do" class="popup">出来ない</span>。<br />- You cannot take this class without consulting with teacher.</p><p>Hopefully not too difficult. Another way to express the exact same thing is to replace the last 「ない」 part with 「ず」.However, the two exception verbs 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">する</span>」 and「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">くる</span>」 become 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">せず</span>」 and「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">こず</span>」 respectively. It is also common to see this grammar combined with the target 「に」 particle.This version is more formal than 「ないで」 and is not used as much in regular conversations. </p><div class="sumbox"><span class="summary">Doing something without doing something else</span><ul>
<li>Another way to indicate an action that was done without doing another action is to replace the 「ない」 part of the negative action that was not done with 「ず」.<br />例）　<span title="たべる - to eat" class="popup">食べ<em><strike>る</strike></em></span> → <span title="たべる - to eat" class="popup">食べ<em><strike>ない</strike></em></span> → <span title="たべる - to eat" class="popup">食べ<em>ず</em></span><br />例）　<span title="いく - to go" class="popup">行<em><strike>く</strike></em></span> → <span title="いく - to go" class="popup">行か<em><strike>ない</strike></em></span> → <span title="いく - to go" class="popup">行か<em>ず</em></span></li><li>The two exception verbs 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">する</span>」 and 「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">くる</span>」 become 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">せず</span>」 and 「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">こず</span>」 respectively.<br />例外1）　<em><span title="する - to do" class="popup">する</span></em> → <em><span title="する - to do" class="popup">せず</span></em><br />例外2）　<em><span title="くる - to come" class="popup">くる</span></em> → <em><span title="くる - to come" class="popup">こず</span></em></li>
</ul></div>
<h3>Examples</h3>
<p>
（１）　<span title="かれ - he; boyfriend" class="popup">彼</span>は<span title="なにも - nothing" class="popup">何も</span><em><span title="いう - to say" class="popup">言わず</span></em>、<span title="かえる - to go home" class="popup">帰って</span>しまった。<br />- He went home without saying anything.</p>

<p>
（２）　<span title="なにも - nothing" class="popup">何も</span><em><span title="たべる - to eat" class="popup">食べず</span></em>に<span title="そんな - like that" class="popup">そんな</span>に<span title="おさけ - alcohol" class="popup">お酒</span>を<span title="のむ - to drink" class="popup">飲む</span>と<span title="とうぜん - naturally" class="popup">当然</span><span title="よっぱらう - to get drunk" class="popup">酔っ払います</span>よ。<br />- Obviously, you're going to get drunk if you drink that much without eating anything.</p>

<p>
（３）　<span title="べんきょう - study" class="popup">勉強</span><em><span title="する - to do" class="popup">せず</span></em>に<span title="とうだい - Tokyo University （東京大学）" class="popup">東大</span>に<span title="はいる - to enter" class="popup">入れる</span>と<span title="おもう - to think" class="popup">思わない</span>な。<br />- I don't think you can get in Tokyo University without studying.</p>
<h2 id="part3">A casual masculine type of negative that ends in 「ん」</h2>Finally, we cover another type of negative that is used mostly by older men.  Since 「ない」 is so long and difficult to say (sarcasm), you canshorten it to just 「ん」.  However, you can't directly modify other words in this form; in other words, you can't make it a <a href="subclause.html#part3">modifying subordinate clause</a>.In the same manner as before, 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">する</span>」 becomes 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">せん</span>」 and「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">くる</span>」 becomes 「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">こん</span>」though I've never heard or seen 「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">こん</span>」 actually being used.If you have ever heard ｢<span title="すまん - sorry" class="popup">すまん</span>」 and wondered what that meant, it's actuallyan example of this grammar.  Notice that 「<span title="すみません - sorry" class="popup">すみません</span>」 is actually in polite negative form. Well,the plain form would be 「<span title="すまない - sorry" class="popup">すまない</span>」, right?  That further transformsto just 「<span title="すまん - sorry" class="popup">すまん</span>」.  The word brings up an image of<span title="おじさん - middle-aged man; uncle" class="popup">おじさん</span> but that may be just me. Anyway, it's a male expression.
<div class="sumbox"><span class="summary">A shorter way to say negative verbs</span><ul><li>A shorter way to say a negative verb is to use 「ん」 instead of 「ない」.<br />例）　<span title="しる - to know" class="popup">知<em><strike>る</strike></em></span> → <span title="しる - to know" class="popup">知ら<em><strike>ない</strike></em></span> → <span title="しる - to know" class="popup">知ら<em>ん</em></span></li><li>The two exception verbs 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">する</span>」 and 「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">くる</span>」 become 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">せん</span>」 and 「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">こん</span>」 respectively.<br />例外1）　<em><span title="する - to do" class="popup">する</span></em> → <em><span title="する - to do" class="popup">せん</span></em><br />例外2）　<em><span title="くる - to come" class="popup">くる</span></em> → <em><span title="くる - to come" class="popup">こん</span></em></li></ul></div>
<h3>Examples</h3>
<p>
（１）　<span title="すまん - sorry" class="popup">すまん</span>。<br />- Sorry.</p>

<p>
（２）　<span title="かんこくじん - Korean person" class="popup">韓国人</span>と<span title="けっこん - marriage" class="popup">結婚</span><span title="する - to do" class="popup">しなくて</span>は<em>ならん</em>！<br />- You must marry a Korean!</p>

<p>
（３）　<span title="そんな - like that" class="popup">そんな</span><span title="こと - event; matter" class="popup">こと</span>は<em><span title="する - to do" class="popup">させん</span></em>！<br />- I won't let you do such a thing!</p>
<p>You can even use this slang for past tense verbs by adding 「かった」.</p>

<p>
（４）　<span title="みんな - everybody" class="popup">皆</span>、<span title="きょう - today" class="popup">今日</span><span title="いく - to go" class="popup">行く</span>って、<span title="しる - to know" class="popup">知らん<em>かった</em></span>よ。
<br />- I didn't know everybody was going today.
</p>


<h2 id="part4">A classical negative verb that ends in 「ぬ」</h2>There is yet another version of the negative verb conjugation and it uses 「ぬ」 instead of the 「ない」 that attaches to the end of the verb.While this version of the negative conjugation is old-fashioned and part of classical Japanese, you will still encounter it occasionally.In fact, I just saw this conjugation on a sign at the train station today, so it's not too uncommon.<p>
For any verb, you can replace 「ない」 with 「ぬ」 to get to an old-fashion sounding version of the negative.Similar to the last section, 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">する</span>」 becomes 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">せぬ</span>」 and 「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">くる</span>」becomes 「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">こぬ</span>」.  You may hear this grammar being used from older people or your friends if they want to bring back ye olde days.
</p>
<div class="sumbox"><span class="summary">An old-fashioned way to say negative verbs</span><ul><li>An old-fashioned  way to say a negative verb is to use 「ぬ」 instead of 「ない」.<br />例）　<span title="しる - to know" class="popup">知<em><strike>る</strike></em></span> → <span title="しる - to know" class="popup">知ら<em><strike>ない</strike></em></span> → <span title="しる - to know" class="popup">知ら<em>ぬ</em></span></li><li>The two exception verbs 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">する</span>」 and 「くる」 become 「<span title="する - to do" class="popup">せぬ</span>」 and 「<span title="くる - to come" class="popup">こぬ</span>」 respectively.<br />例外1）　<em><span title="する - to do" class="popup">する</span></em> → <em><span title="する - to do" class="popup">せぬ</span></em><br />例外2）　<em><span title="くる - to come" class="popup">くる</span></em> → <em><span title="くる - to come" class="popup">こぬ</span></em></li></ul></div>
<h3>Examples</h3>
<p>
（１）　<span title="かんこくじん - Korean person" class="popup">韓国人</span>と<span title="けっこん - marriage" class="popup">結婚</span><span title="する - to do" class="popup">して</span>は<em>ならぬ</em>！<br />- You must not marry a Korean!</p>

<p>
（２）　<span title="もぎ - mock" class="popup">模擬</span><span title="しけん - examination" class="popup">試験</span>に<span title="なんかい - number of times" class="popup">何回</span>も<span title="しっぱい - failure" class="popup">失敗</span><span title="する - to do" class="popup">して</span>、<span title="じっさい - actual" class="popup">実際</span>に<span title="うける - to receive" class="popup">受けて</span>みたら<em><span title="おもう - to think" class="popup">思わぬ</span></em><span title="けっか - result" class="popup">結果</span>が<span title="でる - to come out" class="popup">出た</span>。<br />- After having failed mock examination any number of times, a result I wouldn't have thought came out when I actually tried taking the test.</p>
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<div class="small" style="text-align:right;"><pre>This page has last been revised on 2005/2/24</pre></div>
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